Read it.
Use it.
Focused guides for the questions that need more than a quick answer. Each includes a worksheet to prepare your next conversation.
Guides for your next decision.
Build a TN employer evidence brief before drafting the letter
Read & prepare Applicant planningKeep an L-1A new-office record from approval to extension
Read & prepare Applicant planningCompare the E-2 evidence for a startup and a business purchase
Read & prepare U.S. destination planningCanadian RN planning for New York State
Read & prepare U.S. destination planningCanadian RN planning for California
Read & prepareSeven decisions, answered before you prepare.
Explain which proposed duties are professional work rather than relying on a department name
A Saint-Isidore applicant may receive an offer from a technical or professional department whose name says little about the actual position. Build the TN assessment around the services the person will perform. Start by making a position-and-credential comparison table: proposed duty, expected output, related listed profession, required qualification and document that proves it. Hypothetical example: a fire-protection engineer receives an offer from a general safety department; the decision is whether the described engineering duties and the applicant’s actual credential support the proposed TN profession, not whether the department sounds professional.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Describe the work in practical terms
- Match the individual to the listed profession
- Keep the employer’s real arrangement visible
Identify which person’s nationality is being used in the business proposal
A Saint-Isidore resident may discuss a U.S. venture with a Canadian partner. Record the actual applicant and the relevant nationality facts before using the partner’s citizenship in a category comparison. Make the category comparison person by person before discussing a shared venture. Hypothetical example: an aquaculture-systems designer holds Canadian permanent residence while a Canadian-citizen partner will supply part of the capital; the decision is whether the designer has an independent route, a qualifying role and the required personal facts, not whether the partnership can lend the designer the other person’s nationality.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Keep personal citizenship personal
- Separate enterprise nationality from one partner’s passport
- Check transfer evidence if L is proposed
Show how the enterprise would operate between projected revenue periods
A Saint-Isidore investor may propose a business whose sales are concentrated in certain periods. Explain the actual operating plan and funding assumptions instead of presenting an annual total as the complete economic picture. Build a month-by-month operating sheet before deciding that the investment is substantial and the enterprise is nonmarginal. Hypothetical example: a heritage seed-cleaning business buys equipment and pays seasonal workers before its first autumn receipts; the investor must decide whether the committed capital and documented cash flow can carry those earlier obligations, rather than treating the projected year-end sales figure as cash already available.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Break the forecast into the periods that matter
- Connect the plan to the nonmarginality assessment
- Keep the investment and authority records accurate
Explain the employee’s knowledge of the process actually being introduced in the United States
A Saint-Isidore company may be introducing a revised internal process during a U.S. launch. Connect the proposed L-1B employee’s actual knowledge and work to that process rather than relying only on the name of an older system. Create a process-transfer record before naming the proposed employee. Hypothetical example: a molecular-diagnostics workflow specialist helped validate the foreign company’s revised testing sequence; the decision is whether the U.S. assignment actually needs that acquired organizational knowledge, supported by dated training and process records, rather than future instruction the employee has not yet received.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Document what the employee knows and will do
- Distinguish an existing record from planned training
- Keep the launch evidence complete
Separate knowledge of the product from authority over the enterprise
A Saint-Isidore applicant may know a product well but have limited authority in the company that will sell it. Compare the actual L-1B employment case and E-2 investor case instead of treating product expertise as investor control. Choose the route by matching the applicant’s existing facts to its legal function, not by choosing the label that sounds more flexible. Hypothetical example: a railway-signal software specialist knows the product but owns no voting interest in the proposed U.S. seller; the decision is whether the company can document a qualifying L transfer for that employee or whether a different person actually has the ownership and control needed for an E-2 case.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Identify the knowledge and transfer evidence
- Identify the investor’s real decision rights
- Assess the proposal that will actually be made
Keep a child’s school admission separate from immigration permission
A Saint-Isidore family may receive a school acceptance while the U.S. move is still being assessed. Identify the child’s actual dependent eligibility and authorized stay rather than treating the school’s decision as an immigration decision. Put each family member on a separate status timeline before accepting a school place or committing to a move. Hypothetical example: the parent operating a cello-restoration studio expects to travel first while a 20-year-old child finishes a program; the family must decide whether the child will still meet the relevant dependent conditions on the intended arrival date, rather than assuming the parent’s business plan preserves the child’s status.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Apply the child’s actual category conditions
- Distinguish attendance from an extension of status
- Keep age protection and work assumptions separate
Ask which official event a promised processing timeline actually describes
A Saint-Isidore applicant may hear a provider describe an investor route as fast. Identify the event being estimated and the evidence behind that estimate rather than treating a general timeline as a promise of residence. Ask for two separate milestone charts before comparing the routes. Hypothetical example: the founder of a synthetic-sapphire optics company wants a rapid move for a U.S. launch; the decision is whether the available evidence supports an EB-5 capital-and-jobs case or a Gold Card payment process, and which official event must occur before the founder undertakes the planned role.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
- Separate the steps in the EB-5 case
- Separate vetting and payment from the Gold Card outcome
- Record the estimate without converting it into certainty